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Strait of Hormuz Shuts Down Following Israeli Strikes in Lebanon, U.S. Dismisses Claims on Ceasefire Agreement Violation; Artemis II Crew Holds Press Conference Ahead of their Expected Splashdown to Earth. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired April 09, 2026 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to all of you watching around the world, I'm Brian Abel at Atlanta.

Just ahead, an uneasy ceasefire. Iran accuses the U.S. of violating the truce as Tehran claims shipping has now stopped in the Strait of Hormuz. We'll have the latest.

Israel launches its largest coordinated strikes in Lebanon as confusion grows over whether Lebanon is supposed to be part of the ceasefire deal. Plus--

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CHRISTINA KOCH, NASA ASTRONAUT, AND ARTEMIS II MISSION SPECIALIST: We're constantly moving around, whether it's to complete a task, to just eat, you know, to look out the window to take a picture.

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ABEL: We are hearing from the Artemis II crew as they prepare to head back to Earth.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Brian Abel.

ABEL: We begin this hour with what remains a fragile ceasefire with Iran. The U.S. is dismissing claims from Tehran that have violated the truce, while Iran's foreign minister says the ball is in the U.S. court, urging the United States to choose between upholding the ceasefire or pursuing what he described as continued war via Israel.

Those comments, as Iran says new Israeli attacks on Lebanon are a ceasefire violation and that shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has now come to a halt. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance is warning the ceasefire will end if Iran does not follow through on promises to reopen the critical waterway. Despite all this, he says negotiations are still progressing. And this weekend, Vance is set to lead a negotiating team for talks in

Pakistan. That team includes Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Iranian delegation is expected to arrive in Islamabad Thursday night.

Meanwhile, it is just after 10:00 a.m. across Lebanon and the militant group Hezbollah has been reportedly firing rockets into Israel for the first time since the Iran ceasefire was reached. This is in response to the brutal Israeli bombardment a day earlier.

We are told Israel struck more than 100 sites across Lebanon in a mere 10 minutes and carried out some of the most extensive attacks on Beirut in decades. Israel says Lebanon's government deserved this for failing to disarm Hezbollah. The country's health ministry estimates almost 200 people were killed and close to 900 injured.

The Israeli siege came after the shaky ceasefire with Iran, which the U.S. and Israel claim does not include Lebanon. Iran disagrees. The American Vice President says it boils down to miscommunication.

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J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn't.

We never made that promise. We never indicated that was going to be the case. What we said is that the ceasefire would be focused on Iran and the ceasefire would be focused on America's allies, both Israel and the Gulf Arab states.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now from Abu Dhabi. We just heard from the Vice President there. Paula, tell us where the ceasefire stands at this moment.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brian, one point to make is it wasn't just Iran that believed that Lebanon was part of this ceasefire deal. It was always also Pakistan who was the honest broker in this two week ceasefire. The Prime Minister saying at the beginning that it did include Lebanon so the misunderstanding was really there at the beginning with Pakistan as well.

Now, when it comes to this attack that we saw in Lebanon yesterday, there has been widespread condemnation in the midst of attempts to try and keep this very fragile ceasefire on track. We've heard condemnation across Europe.

We've heard it from Pakistan, the mediator in this. We've also heard it from Qatar, who's a country here in the Gulf that has been the victim of many of the Iranian strikes over the past 40 days. And so what we're seeing at this point is a growing problem of the Israelis believing that Lebanon is still part of this war, that they are still able to target Hezbollah.

Now, we heard the U.S. President call it, quote, "separate skirmish."

[03:05:05]

But clearly what we saw yesterday was extremely deadly. And it was not in the Hezbollah strongholds of southern Lebanon that we've seen in the past, but it was in Shia Muslim neighborhoods, Christian neighborhoods, as well as southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley.

Now, European ministers have been condemning this strike. We heard from the Belgian Foreign Minister, who was just about a few hundred meters away from the strike in Beirut. When it happens, he said that this must stop, that Lebanon must be part of this ongoing ceasefire deal between Iran and Israel and the United States.

We also heard a very strong condemnation from the French Emmanuel Macron. And I want to read you his statement.

"He said, quote, I expressed France's full solidarity in the face of the indiscriminate strikes carried out by Israel in Lebanon today, which resulted in a very high number of civilian casualties. We condemn these strikes in the strongest possible terms.

They pose a direct threat to the sustainability of the ceasefire that has just been reached. Lebanon must be fully covered by it."

So further calls for Lebanon to be part of this ceasefire, which even that is extremely fragile at this point. And we understand that there are a number of different proposals that have been put forward, that have been put in the public eye.

The U.S. 15-point proposal, the Iran 10-point proposal, which the U.S. Vice President claims there are a few versions of and they don't emulate one another at all. There are some very different points being put forward. Maximalist demands, of course, which is what you would expect going into negotiations, which should be starting on Saturday. Brian.

ABEL: All right, Paula Hancocks for us in Abu Dhabi. Paula, thank you.

The U.S. and Iran are both portraying the two-week ceasefire agreement as a victory. For now, the deal means an end to relentless strikes that have killed hundreds of Iranians. But the impact of a ceasefire and the war will stretch far beyond weeks into years and potentially generations.

CNN's Leila Gharogozlou spoke with civilians in Iran to get their perspective.

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UNKNOWN: As the war went on, we realized that this war is really against Iran and not in a benefit for the benefit of Iran.

LEILA GHARAGOZLOU, CNN PRODUCER: In the final hours of his own deadline, President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran. CNN spoke to some Iranians who have mixed feelings. We aren't disclosing their identities for their safety.

UNKNOWN: I feel relieved that the escalation did not happen, that the people of Iran will not suffer. This war has brought the sort of unity that we didn't have at the beginning of the war.

GHARAGOZLOU: The unity for many Iranians comes from their ability to survive the U.S. and Israeli military operation.

UNKNOWN: It's a different feeling and atmosphere from the days right after the 12-day war. When I speak to people today, there's a sense of pride in the country that we too were able to survive this war.

GHARAGOZLOU: After nearly a month of attacks and promises of regime change by the U.S. and opposition groups, some feel that the war made the Iranian government stronger.

UNKNOWN: I feel that we, the regular normal people, are the ultimate losers in this. Nothing has changed, everything is worse, I hope at least we get some sanctions relief. How are we even going to move on?

GHARAGOZLOU: There's also skepticism about whether a ceasefire will even hold.

UNKNOWN: I hope the ceasefire is genuine and not a pretext to get all the ships out of the Persian Gulf and straight up Hormuz and then to rearm and restart. The fact that J.D. Vance is involved and Mr. Ghalibaf is involved gives me hope that this will be a very, very serious discussion, not like the waste of time the previous times the U.S. used as a pretext.

GHARAGOZLOU: For others, the war continues while still under the current rule.

UNKNOWN: Honestly, unless there are big changes they make, I think we'll keep protesting because even if they stay for now, they have to eventually go. This can't continue.

GHARAGOZLOU: As a fragile peace looks to take hold, some Iranians hold out hopes about the new faces in Iran's government.

UNKNOWN: I hope that the new leadership in Iran, which are my people, is a lot more in touch with the younger generation, a lot more in tune with what's going on in the world, more open to the idea of being part of the rest of the world and participating in the global economy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Now earlier I spoke with Azadeh Pourzand, director of Impact Iran, about the mood in Iran before and after the start of the war.

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AZADEH POURZAND, DIRECTOR, IMPACT IRAN: Iranians that I am sort of in touch with or follow entered this conflict grieving, angry, and already quite agonized because of what I think is essentially a domestic war that the Islamic Republic has for a long declared against its own citizens.

And then when the conflict happened, basically the sky was no longer safe for the Iranians anymore. The already quite fragile economy became much worse for ordinary citizens. And also the internet shutdown, which is a usual technique of the Iranian regime, again became quite a difficult aspect of this conflict.

Meanwhile, there were Iranians who were hoping that despite all the destruction that this conflict will bring, that they will be able to sort of use this moment in order to determine their destiny in a democratic way that they were hoping to. But that hope was also increasingly fragile as the conflict continued.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: And President Trump met with NATO chief Mark Rutte at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the war with Iran. According to the White House, Trump said NATO allies were tested and failed when they did not join the conflict in the way he wanted. The NATO chief says he understands Trump's disappointment, but that many European nations helped the U.S. in other ways.

President Trump, however, continued to lash out following the meeting. He posted this writing in all caps, "NATO wasn't there when we needed them and they won't be there if we need them again. Remember Greenland, that big, poorly run piece of ice."

The NATO chief described the situation to CNN's Jake Tapper.

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MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: He is clearly disappointed and with many NATO allies, and I can see his point. But at the same time, I was also able to point to the fact that the large majority of European nations has been helpful with basing, with logistics, with overflights, with making sure that they lift up to the commitments.

And there is also widespread support for the fact that degrading the nuclear and the ballistic missile capacity from Iran was really crucial, and that only the U.S. was able at this point to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: In Gaza City, medics there say an Al Jazeera journalist was killed when an Israeli strike hit his car. Bystanders tried to extinguish the burning vehicle, but they were unable to save him.

A record 129 journalists and media workers were killed while doing their jobs last year alone. Two-thirds of them killed by Israel, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent organization which documents attacks on the press.

Dozens of firefighters responded to the scene after a massive fire tore through the velodrome in Rio de Janeiro's Olympic Park. Look at that. Key tales are just ahead.

Plus, voters in Hungary are heading to the polls this weekend. The issues at the top of voters' minds as CNN reports from Budapest next.

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The fire officials in Brazil say a massive blaze that engulfed the roof of the velodrome in Rio de Janeiro's Olympic Park is now under control. They say nobody was hurt, and there's no risk of the fire spreading to other parts of the complex. Good news there.

Now, the velodrome was built for the 2016 Rio Olympics. It houses the Olympic Museum, filled with exhibits, medals, and the torch from the summer games.

Over to Hungary. Voters will head to the polls on Sunday for a parliamentary election that could determine the country's next leader. Right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban is hoping to extend his 16-year grip on power with the help of J.D. Vance and the Trump administration.

But as CNN's Melissa Bell reports, he's currently lagging in the polls.

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VANCE: Mr. President, you are on with about 5000 Hungarian patriots, and I think they love you even more than they love Viktor Orban.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT (on the phone): I love Hungary, and I love that Viktor. I'll tell you, he's a fantastic man.

MELISSA BELL, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): But on Sunday, MAGA's European darling will face his toughest election in 16 years.

BELL: That speech and J.D. Vance's presence in Budapest at all, just days ahead of this critical poll, is nothing short of foreign interference. According to the man standing against Viktor Orban for Peter Magyar, this is an election that can be decided neither in Washington, nor in Moscow, nor in Brussels, but only in the streets of Hungary itself.

BELL (voice-over): In fact, Magyar has largely stayed clear of foreign policy altogether on the campaign trail, with his Tisza party focusing on the bread-and-butter issues that they think matter to most Hungarians.

BELL: What are people worried about? What are the things that matter to voters?

UNKNOWN (through translator): The economy that is stagnating. One can say corruption is extensive. We see that on the news.

UNKNOWN (through translator): Those behind the current government are worried about the war in Ukraine, while Tisza supporters are worried about the economy.

BELL: It is those kitchen table issues and the economic dissatisfaction felt by many Hungarians that it is suggested has allowed Peter Magyar to get to where he is in the polls, and that in itself, they say, is remarkable given the grip that Viktor Orban's party has on the state's institutions.

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CARSTEN J. SCHNEIDER, INTERIM PRESIDENT, CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY: I think the regime he has built since 2010 is trying to achieve this, to make the elections free but not fair, to stack the odds against oppositions, to provide advantages to his own party, the Fidesz party, and also to shield several institutions that are very important for collective decision-making in the economy and society from the outcome of elections.

BELL (voice-over): But in the public baths of Budapest, the war in neighboring Ukraine or the American Vice President's visit so central to Orban's electoral pitch seem distant concerns, even if Orban still has many diehard supporters.

UNKNOWN: Orban is also a very good friend of Trump, very satisfied with him, and of course, it's a great help if a big lion helps this little ant, but they have realized that they are good friends.

UNKNOWN: In the last 16 years, we live under a regime which is not the future but in the past, because of the Russian connections, because of the Chinese connections, so we don't have a real future if this regime goes on.

BELL: By moving his pawns and his people into position, Viktor Orban has, over the course of the last 16 years, fundamentally changed the lay of the land, turning this democracy here in Hungary into an illiberal one. The question now, whether on Sunday, the world finds out what happens after that ends.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Budapest.

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ABEL: Airlines are scrambling to figure out how to deal with soaring fuel prices caused by the war in Iran. Still ahead, how the rising costs will affect passengers and potentially airline jobs.

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ABEL: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom," I'm Brian Abel. Let's check today's top stories.

The U.S. and Iran's fragile ceasefire is being tested just days ahead of talks in Pakistan. Iran says Israeli attacks on Lebanon Wednesday marked a ceasefire violation and now claims shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has come to a halt. The U.S. and Israel say the ceasefire does not include operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance is warning the ceasefire will end if Iran does not reopen the waterway.

Israel says its latest attacks were the largest coordinated strikes on Lebanon since the war began. The Israeli military hammered more than 100 sites across the country in just minutes. The Lebanese health ministry says close to 200 people were killed, Iran's proxy militia Hezbollah is said to be firing rockets into northern Israel in retaliation.

Senate Democrats plan to force a vote next week to rein in President Trump's Iran war powers. Keep in mind three similar attempts have previously failed. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer says he informed the White House about the upcoming vote after President Trump threatened to wipe out, quote ",a whole civilization."

Uncertainty in the Strait of Hormuz is putting the shaky ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran to the test. Earlier reports showed traffic starting to resume through the waterway that carries one-fifth of the world's oil. But Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps later said shipping was stopped again, blaming Israel's continued military operations in Lebanon.

The White House says it's a case of Iran saying one thing publicly but doing another, and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance says the ceasefire will end if the Strait is not reopened. Now Iran initially closed the Strait at the start of the war, causing the price of oil and products like jet fuel to skyrocket.

So for more on this, we are joined by aviation analyst Hans-Jorgen Elnaes in Oslo, Norway. You, sir, have been in the business of aviation, I think it's safe to say, for a while now, for decades worth. So, I know you've seen some dramatic changes in the industry.

Give us a sense of how much change we can expect as a result of this conflict and the doubling of jet fuel prices from a commercial passenger standpoint specifically.

HANS-JORGEN ELNAES, AVIATION ANALYST: Well, the situation we see today is very different from a lot of the previous historical and geopolitical issues it has been. So, this rapid increase in the price is something that we haven't seen before.

Just to give you an example, it's that Delta Airlines came up with a Q1 results yesterday, and for Q2, for the period of April to June, they expect an additional $2 billion fuel bill on top of what they paid for the same period last year. So, this will hit the passengers.

In terms of the airlines, they need to increase their fares to cover some of this increase in their jet fuel. But again, the airlines cannot increase their price too much because that will hit the man.

But so far, according to Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta, the demand has not been hit yet, at least in the United States. You see some weakness in Europe, but overall, it looks pretty good so far.

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ABEL: Okay, pretty good so far. Not a bad assessment. Just how much does jet fuel play into an airline's bottom line, and what does the supply chain look like?

ELNAES: If you take an average, the jet fuel is the highest cost element for airlines in Europe and Asia. In the U.S., it's the highest. So, it's about 25-30 percent.

And if we then consider that the jet fuel price per ton was $800 before the war, and now it's picking up to $2,000 per ton, it means that it almost tripled. So, that will have a significant impact on the balance sheet for airlines. Though airlines are an instrument to cope with the variation in the fuel price, and that's called hedging.

And I knew many, 40-60 percent of the six to 18 months I had except consumption of fuel. But not all airlines do that. Not all airlines do it, and some airlines are not in a hedge position like the U.S. airlines.

So, that will then require them to make an assessment in terms of reducing their capacity in the range of four to five percent. You see some airlines don't already assess in Scandinavia, in New Zealand, and not too common, I think, you see, is the price of competition.

ABEL: And I imagine the larger airlines have more of a greater ability to be able to do that. Before this war began, we've seen an already consolidated airline market, especially in the United States. American, Delta, United, Southwest.

And then just yesterday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said there was room for more consolidation. But for those smaller budget airlines, like Frontier, Spirit, JetBlue, are they more susceptible or in danger of collapse as a result of these fuel prices?

ELNAES: The low-cost carriers, they are, by definition, they rule by the game in terms of having a low cost. And that's why they always try to hedge themselves against this variation in fuel price, because the fuel price is something that we can calculate ahead of time. And we're talking about U.S. carriers.

They're normally bump heads. So this is, the fuel price has supposedly been the most important element for consolidation and failure among the airlines. So we have to see how long time this high fuel price will continue.

And the analyst says, in the fuel market, says that it can last throughout the year. So it will be exciting to see how this will impact on particular low-cost carriers, and particularly those with a weak balance sheet. ABEL: Hans-Jorgen Elnaes, I appreciate your expertise, sir. Thank you

for joining us.

ELNAES: Thanks so much.

ABEL: And we'll be right back.

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ABEL: Welcome back to CNN, this is your Business Breakout. And let's take a look at the markets in Asia, all starting in the red right now.

And here's a look at the business headlines for you.

Oil prices are starting to creep back up amid the uncertainty over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Prices initially dropped after the U.S. and Iran announced a ceasefire, and some vessels passed through the Strait. But Iran later said the waterway was closed again, blaming Israel's continued operations in Lebanon.

Greece is planning to ban access to social media for children under the age of 15 starting in 2027. The prime minister says the decision comes amid rising anxiety, sleep problems, and the addictive nature of online platforms. Greece's parliament is set to legislate the ban in the coming months.

Meta has unveiled its first artificial intelligence model from the high-priced team hired to play catch-up in the A.I. race. MuseSpark will be rolling out on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and other products in the coming weeks. Company shares traded up nearly 7 percent on the news.

Anthropic's latest A.I. model has the potential to let hackers carry out attacks faster than ever. In response, the company is attempting to help some of the world's biggest businesses protect themselves from cyberattacks. Sean Lyngaas explains.

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SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: Anthropic is making its new AI model available to some of the world's biggest cybersecurity and software firms in an effort to get ahead of hackers, the A.I. company said this week.

Big tech firms like Amazon, Apple, and Google will now have access to Anthropic's Mythos model for cyber defense purposes. That includes finding vulnerabilities in those firms' software and testing whether certain hacking techniques work on their products. Mythos is not ready for a public launch because of the ways it could be abused by cybercriminals and spies, according to Anthropic, a prospect that has prompted widespread concern here in Washington and in Silicon Valley. Experts have told CNN that the speed and scale of A.I. agents looking for vulnerabilities far beyond normal human capabilities represents a sea change in cybersecurity.

Sean Lyngaas, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Sean, thank you.

And new court filing shows Florida prosecutors plan to subpoena prescription drug records for Tiger Woods following his car crash and arrest last month.

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Prosecutors are seeking information about medications in his name, including the type, the dosage, usage instructions, and warnings. An attorney for Woods declined to comment on the filing, and the golf legend is charged with driving under the influence with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test. Both misdemeanors, Woods has pleaded not guilty, according to court documents.

And astronauts with NASA's Artemis II mission they are preparing to return to Earth on Friday. In a few hours, the crew and flight control teams will begin preparing the cabin and studying entry procedures ahead of the planned splashdown off the coast of San Diego, California.

As they make their way home, NASA astronaut Christina Koch says they're having fun despite the close quarters.

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KOCH: Wow, we have loved living in Orion. And in fact, we've all said that sometimes you can forget where you really are because we're in this small space that just gives us everything we need.

But the answer to your question is yes, it is bigger in microgravity. And yes, we are bumping into each other 100 percent of the time.

A phrase that you often hear in the cabin is, don't move your foot, I'm just going to reach for something right under it. Or, you know, can I get there?

My goal is to get over there. And we're constantly moving around, whether it's to complete a task, to just eat, you know, to look out the window, to take a picture. Everything we do in here is a four- person activity.

But it's also really fun.

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ABEL: What a strange experience that must be. The astronauts started their day on Wednesday more than 200,000 miles from Earth and more than 83,000 miles from the moon. Their mission is paving the way for long-term lunar science and exploration capabilities and inspiring the next generation of explorers.

A colorful boom in southeast England. More than 100 varieties of tulips have been planted in fields across West Sussex for the annual Tully's Tulip Festival, organizers say about 1.5 million bulbs were scattered to bring the floral explosion of color to the British countryside and unlike traditional flower displays, which are relatively short, the tulips were planted in timed varieties, rather, so each week a new row is in bloom. Beautiful.

That's it for this hour of "CNN Newsroom," thank you for watching. I'm Brian Abel, in Atlanta. "World Sport" is up next.

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